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Tod Brannen
12-Oct-2005, 05:32 PM
Greetings,
I have a user who wants to extract names from their database (VDF) using
Crystal IX. They have the Name record as the main record and the child
records are Donations and Payments and Affinities. All the child records
have the ID# of the name record as the related field. Obviously there are
many child records for each Name. The idea is to get a list of Names that
gave donations over a certain amount, and a list of Names that made payments
during a date range, and a list of Names that have Affinities, then combine
these lists and delete or supress all the duplicates. (Any Name could have
child records in any or all of the child files, but they only want to send
one letter to each name.) Is it possible to do this in Crystal? If so, how?

I hope this is clear, but if not let me know and I will try to clarify.

Thanks,

Tod Brannen

David Martinko
12-Oct-2005, 09:11 PM
I assume you meant Crystal XI... not IX.. else you would have just said 9.

Secondly, what version of VDF are you using? If you are using 11.1, then you
can take advantage of CDO's. I have a donation module for my charity
software and each donor has a catagory for Resident, Government,
Organization, or Business. The user can choose all, some, or one of those
catagories and many other options to generate reports. I use CDO's to put
all the data into one location to be printed from. The CDO gets its data
from an array, so that means you load the array in VDF before passing it to
the CDO. Which means you have total control over the data before it send it
to Crystal.

HTH

--
David Martinko
Redeemed Software
248-535-7495
RedeemedSoftware(SHIFT+2)Hotmail(PERIOD)com
www.redeemedsoftware.com

"Tod Brannen" <tbrannen@ate.net> wrote in message
news:GFu$Rz3zFHA.6080@dacmail.dataaccess.com...
> Greetings,
> I have a user who wants to extract names from their database (VDF)
> using
> Crystal IX. They have the Name record as the main record and the child
> records are Donations and Payments and Affinities. All the child records
> have the ID# of the name record as the related field. Obviously there are
> many child records for each Name. The idea is to get a list of Names that
> gave donations over a certain amount, and a list of Names that made
> payments
> during a date range, and a list of Names that have Affinities, then
> combine
> these lists and delete or supress all the duplicates. (Any Name could have
> child records in any or all of the child files, but they only want to send
> one letter to each name.) Is it possible to do this in Crystal? If so,
> how?
>
> I hope this is clear, but if not let me know and I will try to clarify.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tod Brannen
>
>

Free Agent
12-Oct-2005, 09:40 PM
David,
Mild dislexia, yes it is XI. At this time I am using VDF 10.1. I am not
using VDF to access/run/print Crystal reports. This is just for the users to
do their own reports. I would like to learn about CDO though. Do you have
any sample code to share?

Thanks for the reply.

Tod Brannen

David Martinko
12-Oct-2005, 10:15 PM
There are samples in the Order Entry Workspace of VDF11.1 that show how to
use CDO's. For a CDO, you create a TTX file which simple tells crystal that
you have these fields of these types.. then you use the CDO ActiveX object
and pass it data which is in an array (native array not the dataflex array
object). The datatypes must match and you have to have the same array
structure as your TTX file. I really don't see how you can accomplish this
easily without some sort of CDO or tempfile. In all reality, anything you
print that is going to be mailed should be printed in zipcode order and
group by state (in some cases post offices also require you to bundle
anything that is out of their area). So you will print the letters followed
by all the address labels. Then the person in charge can sign the stack (if
needed) and they can be stuffed and labelled easily... (unless you are using
windowed envelopes and don't need address labels)... but anyways, printing
in zipcode order would save time.

If you are using a SQL database, you can create a view or query which can
accumulate the data you need. This can then be reported out of. If you don't
have SQL or the ability to create temp files, then you will may have to use
subreports to gather the data you want and then they will have to manually
sort the output. (Assuming you are printing reports to be mailed.)

--
David Martinko
Redeemed Software
248-535-7495
RedeemedSoftware(SHIFT+2)Hotmail(PERIOD)com
www.redeemedsoftware.com

"Free Agent" <data_designTRASH@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:L6gv%23%235zFHA.6080@dacmail.dataaccess.com.. .
> David,
> Mild dislexia, yes it is XI. At this time I am using VDF 10.1. I am not
> using VDF to access/run/print Crystal reports. This is just for the users
> to
> do their own reports. I would like to learn about CDO though. Do you have
> any sample code to share?
>
> Thanks for the reply.
>
> Tod Brannen
>
>
>

Free Agent
13-Oct-2005, 07:58 PM
David,
Thanks, I will look at the CDO sample. I am not using SQL, but VDF data.
The idea is to create a list of names and addresses, and salutations and
other data to be used to merge into a letter. Of course the same data can be
used to do their labels if they need them. Right now they are saying they
will probably send the final data file to a service that will do the actual
merge and mailing.

Thanks again,

Tod Brannen
"David Martinko" <RedeemedSoftware@Hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8R9oVR6zFHA.2052@dacmail.dataaccess.com...
> There are samples in the Order Entry Workspace of VDF11.1 that show how to
> use CDO's. For a CDO, you create a TTX file which simple tells crystal
that
> you have these fields of these types.. then you use the CDO ActiveX object
> and pass it data which is in an array (native array not the dataflex array
> object). The datatypes must match and you have to have the same array
> structure as your TTX file. I really don't see how you can accomplish this
> easily without some sort of CDO or tempfile. In all reality, anything you
> print that is going to be mailed should be printed in zipcode order and
> group by state (in some cases post offices also require you to bundle
> anything that is out of their area). So you will print the letters
followed
> by all the address labels. Then the person in charge can sign the stack
(if
> needed) and they can be stuffed and labelled easily... (unless you are
using
> windowed envelopes and don't need address labels)... but anyways, printing
> in zipcode order would save time.
>
> If you are using a SQL database, you can create a view or query which can
> accumulate the data you need. This can then be reported out of. If you
don't
> have SQL or the ability to create temp files, then you will may have to
use
> subreports to gather the data you want and then they will have to manually
> sort the output. (Assuming you are printing reports to be mailed.)
>
> --
> David Martinko
> Redeemed Software
> 248-535-7495
> RedeemedSoftware(SHIFT+2)Hotmail(PERIOD)com
> www.redeemedsoftware.com
>
> "Free Agent" <data_designTRASH@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:L6gv%23%235zFHA.6080@dacmail.dataaccess.com.. .
> > David,
> > Mild dislexia, yes it is XI. At this time I am using VDF 10.1. I am
not
> > using VDF to access/run/print Crystal reports. This is just for the
users
> > to
> > do their own reports. I would like to learn about CDO though. Do you
have
> > any sample code to share?
> >
> > Thanks for the reply.
> >
> > Tod Brannen
> >
> >
> >
>
>

Garret Mott
13-Oct-2005, 09:18 PM
Tod -

You might also want to check out Dan Walsh's mailmerge on VDF-GUIdance.
Peter Donovan & I have adapted it to an app we're working on & it's great.
We've produced 20,000+ merged letters with it. No CR needed - only MSWord &
all code is VDF.

HTH

Garret

"Free Agent" <data_designTRASH@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:$eqQrqF0FHA.2056@dacmail.dataaccess.com...
> David,
> Thanks, I will look at the CDO sample. I am not using SQL, but VDF
> data.
> The idea is to create a list of names and addresses, and salutations and
> other data to be used to merge into a letter. Of course the same data can
> be
> used to do their labels if they need them. Right now they are saying they
> will probably send the final data file to a service that will do the
> actual
> merge and mailing.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Tod Brannen
> "David Martinko" <RedeemedSoftware@Hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:8R9oVR6zFHA.2052@dacmail.dataaccess.com...
>> There are samples in the Order Entry Workspace of VDF11.1 that show how
>> to
>> use CDO's. For a CDO, you create a TTX file which simple tells crystal
> that
>> you have these fields of these types.. then you use the CDO ActiveX
>> object
>> and pass it data which is in an array (native array not the dataflex
>> array
>> object). The datatypes must match and you have to have the same array
>> structure as your TTX file. I really don't see how you can accomplish
>> this
>> easily without some sort of CDO or tempfile. In all reality, anything you
>> print that is going to be mailed should be printed in zipcode order and
>> group by state (in some cases post offices also require you to bundle
>> anything that is out of their area). So you will print the letters
> followed
>> by all the address labels. Then the person in charge can sign the stack
> (if
>> needed) and they can be stuffed and labelled easily... (unless you are
> using
>> windowed envelopes and don't need address labels)... but anyways,
>> printing
>> in zipcode order would save time.
>>
>> If you are using a SQL database, you can create a view or query which can
>> accumulate the data you need. This can then be reported out of. If you
> don't
>> have SQL or the ability to create temp files, then you will may have to
> use
>> subreports to gather the data you want and then they will have to
>> manually
>> sort the output. (Assuming you are printing reports to be mailed.)
>>
>> --
>> David Martinko
>> Redeemed Software
>> 248-535-7495
>> RedeemedSoftware(SHIFT+2)Hotmail(PERIOD)com
>> www.redeemedsoftware.com
>>
>> "Free Agent" <data_designTRASH@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
>> news:L6gv%23%235zFHA.6080@dacmail.dataaccess.com.. .
>> > David,
>> > Mild dislexia, yes it is XI. At this time I am using VDF 10.1. I am
> not
>> > using VDF to access/run/print Crystal reports. This is just for the
> users
>> > to
>> > do their own reports. I would like to learn about CDO though. Do you
> have
>> > any sample code to share?
>> >
>> > Thanks for the reply.
>> >
>> > Tod Brannen
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>

Free Agent
14-Oct-2005, 10:46 PM
Garret,
I used Dan's contribution for the basis of all my merges. Thanks again
Dan. But in this case I am not doing any of their merges, they are supposed
to do it all with Crystal (key word 'supposed'). I had hoped this was
possible. I did a quick look into the Crystal help looking for mail merges,
but I didn't see what I was looking for.

Tod Brannen

Garret Mott
14-Oct-2005, 11:02 PM
Hi Tod -

If it's an embedded db, why not create the merge files with VDF code? Piece
of cake to do .csv output. Adding CR into the mix (in my little brain) just
adds complexity, cost & training.

Heck, you can use VDFQuery to do it & save the queries for different merges.
If you want to get fancy, create your own "select the fields you need" view
& output 'em.

No dll, license & whatever issues.

Just a thought,

Garret

"Free Agent" <data_designTRASH@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:jaVUPtT0FHA.2052@dacmail.dataaccess.com...
> Garret,
> I used Dan's contribution for the basis of all my merges. Thanks again
> Dan. But in this case I am not doing any of their merges, they are
> supposed
> to do it all with Crystal (key word 'supposed'). I had hoped this was
> possible. I did a quick look into the Crystal help looking for mail
> merges,
> but I didn't see what I was looking for.
>
> Tod Brannen
>
>